The invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method and, more particularly, to an information processing apparatus and method for rewriting a basic program which is executed upon activation of the apparatus and an application program which is executed in accordance with the basic program.
In association with the progress of a recent semiconductor technique, a microcomputer is applied to various electronic equipment. For example, the microcomputer is applied to an IRD (Integrated Receiver Decoder). IRD""s have become widespread in recent years and may serve as a receiver in a broadcasting system for broadcasting programs or the like via a satellite.
In such a field, the possibility that services to be provided will be changed in the future is strong. It is thus necessary to design an apparatus (for example, the IRD) so that a program of the microcomputer can be changed in correspondence to the change.
The programs of the microcomputer are classified as a basic program having routines such as a boot routine and the like for executing a basic process and an application program for actually providing services.
The applicant has already proposed such an apparatus for changing (updating) the application program in, for example, JP-A-8-195952 (1996).
In case of changing both the basic program and the application program, when a new basic program and application program are directly written into a memory area in which an original basic program and application program have been stored, a non-normal state where the basic program having a boot routine or the like is not normally stored is caused when an error, power failure, or the like occurs during the writing of the basic program, so that it is difficult to activate the apparatus next time. Consequently, two storing units are provided for a rewritable non-volatile memory such as an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory) and, when the programs are updated, either one of the storing units is alternately used every updating.
In this manner, even when the error, power failure, or the like occurs during the writing of the programs, since the original basic program has been preserved, the next activation can be performed.
However, if two storing units are provided as mentioned above, it is necessary that the rewritable non-volatile memory have at least a capacity equal to the basic program in order to preserve the basic program. So, there is a problem that this makes it difficult to reduce the costs of the apparatus.
The invention is made in consideration of such a situation and intends to make it possible to update programs without providing two rewritable non-volatile memories.
According to the invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus comprising:
storing means in which at least two memory areas have been preset;
means for obtaining a new basic program from the outside; and
executing means for executing an application program stored in the storing means in accordance with a basic program stored in the storing means,
characterized in that the executing means allows a new basic program obtained to be stored into the memory area that is not used for writing the basic program in at least the two memory areas of the storing means.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an information processing method comprising the steps of:
storing a basic program into one of at least two preset memory areas and executing a stored application program in accordance with the stored basic program; and
allowing a new basic program obtained from outside the memory areas to be stored into the other memory area that is not used for writing the basic program in at least the two memory areas.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus comprising:
storing means in which at least two memory areas to store a basic program have been preset and an application program is stored;
means for obtaining a new basic program and a new application program from the outside; and
executing means for executing the application program stored in the storing means in accordance with the basic program stored in the storing means;
characterized in that the executing means allows the obtained new basic program to be stored into the memory area that is not used for writing the basic program in at least the two memory areas of the storing means and, after that, allows the new application program to be stored into an area other than the area in which the new basic program has been stored.
According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided an information processing method comprising the steps of:
storing a basic program into one of at least two memory areas which have been preset and executing a stored application program-in accordance with the stored basic program; and
storing a new basic program obtained from the outside into the other memory area that is not used to write the basic program in at least the two memory areas of storing means and, after that, storing a new application program obtained from the outside into the area other than the area in which the new basic program has been stored.
When the new basic program is stored into the storing means, the executing means allows the basic program to be stored into the memory area that is not used to write the basic program before. Therefore, it is possible to rewrite the basic program without any problem.
In another embodiment,the newly obtained basic program is stored into the memory area that is not used to write the, basic program before and the newly obtained application program is written into the area other than the area in which the new basic program has been stored, so that the basic program and the application program can be stored into the storing means without any problem.